Quite a bit of Python in this essay (link below), relating to math teaching. This is a philosophy of education I used to post about here in fire hose quantities, in dialog with Arthur and the OLPC folks, among others. No reason to top-off an already-full tank, right? But maybe some are nostalgic, want to revisit old themes, even start up new debates (if bored by all the quiet -- getting like math-thinking-l around here). http://www.mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=7223356&tstart=0 If you're cross-subscribed with Diversity, you know I'm working to recruit more truckers to Python (why should Java have all the fun -- and Visual FoxPro seems to be fading). No, this doesn't make me a "fossil fuels nut".** Maybe some of those trucks are electric, like in the early 1900s (I've been reading Edwin Black's 'Internal Combustion' so consider me under the influence). I thought this most recent NCTM geometry book: Focus in High School Mathematics: Reasoning and Sense Making in Geometry ...was somewhat snarky to truckers, as the text protests the sign is correct, in giving the right clearance.  But that's not what the situation calls for (what's the sign for, if not to prevent just such accidents?). Here's what I'm talking about: """ Mathematician Henry Pollak (2004) wondered why tractor trailers often got stuck under a certain underpass when the maximum clearance—the height from the roadway to the bridge—was clearly labeled on a sign. """ http://www.nctm.org/catalog/product.aspx?id=13525  (Read an Excerpt) My review: http://www.mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=7223427&tstart=0 Kirby ** when all the oil companies become one (click for larger view): http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2006/03/big-oil.html Relevant: http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/oopalgebra.html (yeah, Java, but same ideas)